Government Finance Statistics in Bosnia and Herzegovina: How far we have come

Fiscal reporting is the first principle of fiscal transparency. Its main purpose is to present accurate picture of government finance and to provide markets, legislatures and citizens with the necessary information to hold the government accountable. Fiscal reporting is expected to give a comprehensive overview of fiscal activities of the public sector, provide frequent and regular information on relevant, internationally comparable and historically consistent basis, compiled and disseminated in accordance with the international standards. In the last two decades significant changes in this area have begun with the adoption of accrual-based reporting and the extension of the coverage of reports. This paper presents recently developed norms for reporting fiscal statistics and analyses their appliance. In the Analyses it is shown that there has been considerable progress in the development of official public statistics in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Yet, its National Statistical System is confronted with an increasing number of new requirements to align with international recommendations, standards and best practices. The purpose of this paper is to describe the international standards of government finance statistics, analyse the existing system of compilation and dissemination of the official public finance statistics in Bosnia and Herzegovina, compare the state of its compatibility with international standards and highlight challenges and future direction in this statistical area